


Sending Out an SOS

by norakwami



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bondage, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Ignored Safeword, Multi, Protective Marinette Dupain-Cheng
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-07-24 21:18:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20021191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/norakwami/pseuds/norakwami
Summary: Marinette was putting the finishing touches on a batch of macarons when the first text from Adrien arrived.  She squealed giddily and danced in place—Adrien was texting her—but the bottom dropped out of her stomach as she opened the message to see a single lowercase 'x.'That was the distress signal she and Chat Noir had agreed upon months back, to be used only if they needed immediate, no-questions assistance. The next two texts arrived in rapid succession, removing any doubts she had about the meaning of the message.'AT ALYAS''HELP'





	1. Chapter 1

Marinette was putting the finishing touches on a batch of macarons when the first text from Adrien arrived. She squealed giddily and danced in place—Adrien was texting _her—_ but the bottom dropped out of her stomach as she opened the message to see a single lowercase 'x.'

That was the distress signal she and Chat Noir had agreed upon months back, to be used only if they needed immediate, no-questions assistance. The next two texts arrived in rapid succession, removing any doubts she had about the meaning of the message.

_'AT ALYAS'_

_'HELP'_

If the first message hadn't been cause for concern, the complete disregard for proper grammar would have been. Adrien was a stickler for proper grammar and that _always_ showed in his texts.

“Mama, Papa, I have to go now it's an emergency okay bye!” she yelled over her shoulder as she barreled for the front door. She dodged a group of pedestrians and pelted around the corner into an alley.

“You're clear,” Tikki said from the collar of her shirt. She nodded and invoked the transformation without breaking stride, hurtling her yo-yo and swinging up to the rooftops as soon as it formed in her hand.

* * *

Plagg was waiting for her when she detransformed in an alley near the Césaires' apartment. She startled as he separated from the shadows in front of the building, another piece of the puzzle coming together for her. “Thanks for coming,” he said. “Absolutely nothing going on right now is consensual. Don't let anyone tell you any differently.”

He darted into her shirt to hide with Tikki as she slammed through the door and up the stairs, not willing to wait for the elevator. She raised her hand to bang on the door but Plagg zipped through the handle, opening the lock for her. “Alya's room,” he said unnecessarily. Marinette could hear Adrien's voice from down the hall and followed it. “—charm no don't touch me I said no lucky charm lucky charm _lucky charm you fucking bitch._ ”

The room's occupants looked up as the door rebounded off the wall. Marinette took in the sight before her—Adrien _completely naked_ and bound against the closet door, flinching away from Lila as best he could given the circumstances; Lila in translucent lingerie that left nothing to the imagination; Nino standing off to the side with his jeans unbuttoned and his dick halfway down Alya's throat.

“What the _hell_ is going on here?” Marinette demanded.

“Just a little sexy fun between friends,” Lila said, smiling deviously.

“There's nothing fun about it when he's clearly revoked his consent.”

“Oh, Marinette, that's all part of the scene,” Lila said. “Adrien _wants_ this. He hasn't used his _real_ safeword yet. Don't ruin his fun just because you're jealous.”

“Keep it up and there won't be a body left to find when I'm done with you,” Marinette snapped and shoved her out of the way.

She took in the way Adrien was restrained, limbs stretched to the corners of the door. The cuffs around his ankles were easily within her reach, but the ones at the top...

“Can Nino help—”

“ _No._ ” Adrien shook his head vehemently. Nino winced guiltily, detaching himself from Alya.

“Okay,” she said. “Nino, get me a chair or something so I can reach his wrists. Adrien, may I touch you to get those off?”

He nodded frantically. “ _Please._ ” He sighed as she released his legs and then climbed up on the chair Nino had produced to free his wrists as well. Nino held out a bundle of clothes to him; Marinette took it when he shied away and passed it to him.

“Girl, this is ridiculous,” Alya said. “I know you really want to fuck him and have his babies, but you're really taking the stalking to the next level now.”

“ _He texted me for help, Alya!_ ” Marinette snapped. “I don't care that he's fucking you and Nino. I wouldn't care if he was fucking that lying bitch over there _,_ ” she glared at Lila, who glared right back. “He's free to fuck whomever he pleases. I care that he said no and _you three_ kept going even though he was very clearly revoking his consent. That's _rape_ , Alya.”

“It wasn't even his actual safeword—”

“What did he tell you his safeword was?” Marinette asked pointedly, glaring at her.

“Lucky charm,” Nino said softly. “It's always lucky charm.”

“And did you hear _directly from his lips_ that it was going to be different this time?”

“Lila said—”

“Lila _lied_ ,” Adrien said. “I never consented to her joining us. I never changed the safeword. You know how important communication is with this sort of thing. Why would you bring someone else in without discussing it beforehand and making sure we actually were on the same page about it? Why would you accept that I'd changed my safeword without hearing it directly from me?”

Alya gaped at him like a fish. He tugged his shoes on, not bothering to tie them, and grabbed his bag off the floor. “Let's go, Marinette.”

* * *

Marinette followed him to the stairwell. He turned to her as soon as the door shut behind them and pulled her into a tight hug.

“Thank you, Marinette,” he breathed against her neck. “Thank you.”

She carefully returned the hug. “Tap me twice if you need me to let you go.”

He chuckled raggedly and tightened his grip. Marinette held him until he pulled away.

“Thank you,” he repeated. “I don't know how you knew, but thank you for getting me out of there.” Adrien rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I'm sorry you had to witness that...”

“Shut up, kid,” Plagg said, startling Adrien as he phased through Marinette's blazer. “None of that was your fault. Don't you dare go taking the blame for any of this.”

“And there goes your plausible deniability,” Marinette said, rolling her eyes at the kwami. He rolled his right back at her.

“I really don't give a shit,” he said. “You knowing this isn't going to directly harm my kid. Besides, you're not exactly a civilian.”

At least Adrien would assume that he was referring to her brief tenure as Multimouse; he'd been the one to give her that Miraculous to assist him. Plagg might have revealed him, but she was at least going to discuss the matter with Tikki first before doing the same.

“That little liar is just lucky that I didn't break more than her camera,” Plagg continued.

“There was a _camera_?” Adrien wheezed.

“ _Was._ ” Plagg's grin was predatory. “Don't worry, she's not getting any footage off of that thing.”

Adrien squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “I didn't even notice,” he muttered.

“You were... otherwise occupied,” Plagg said, more suggestively than tactfully.

“Yeah,” Adrien sighed and knelt to tie his shoes. “I should have known better.”

“No,” Marinette said, kneeling next to him and grabbing his shoulder. “You guys have had this arrangement for a while now, and nothing like this has ever happened before. You had no way of knowing that they would spring that on you.”

“You really didn't,” Plagg agreed. “Everything else has been discussed beforehand, and they've never ignored the safeword before.”

“Nino wasn't comfortable with it,” Adrien said softly. “He wasn't comfortable with it, but he didn't do anything to stop it.”

“He seemed pretty guilty to me,” Marinette said.

“Yeah,” Adrien said. “Is it wrong of me to not want to forgive him? I mean, he's my best friend, but—”

“Nope.” Marinette slung her arm around his shoulders and squeezed. “That was a massive violation of your trust. If you can't bring yourself to forgive them now, then don't. And even if you _do_ forgive them sometime in the future, that doesn't automatically mean you have to reconcile with them.”

She rose and held her hand out to him. “C'mon. I happen to know a great little bakery where we can go stuff our faces with all the pastries we can eat and take our minds off this for a while.”

“Would that also be the best bakery in Paris?” Adrien asked, giving her a small smile as he let her pull him to his feet.

“You know it,” she said, bumping his shoulder with her own. “Sound good?”

“Sounds great,” he said, following her down the stairs.

* * *

Her mother looked up as they entered the bakery. Marinette winced, fully expecting to get an earful about her sudden departure and the abandoned macarons, but Sabine just rounded the counter and held her arms out to Adrien. “You look like you could use a mom hug, dear.”

He melted into her embrace and she caught Marinette's eye around his arm. _What happened?_ she mouthed.

_Not my place to say,_ Marinette mouthed back with an apologetic grimace. Sabine nodded.

“Your father finished those macarons for you,” she said. “Why don't you take them and some of the other pastries upstairs after you deal with your apron?”

Marinette looked down at herself in horror. She'd been in such a hurry to get to Adrien that she hadn't even thought to remove the flour-and-batter covered apron she was wearing, and—yep, she'd managed to transfer some of that to Adrien's clothes when he'd hugged her. And knowing her luck, she almost certainly had some of it in her hair, too. Great. She was officially going to die.

She slunk off to the kitchen and tossed the apron into the basket her parents kept there for them. Her father looked up as she headed to the plate of finished macarons he'd left at her station.

“Everything okay, honey?” Tom asked. “That was quite a spectacular exit you made earlier.”

“I don't know,” she said honestly, adding a generous amount of the chouquettes Adrien loved to the plate along with a couple of cheese danishes for Plagg. “Adrien texted me saying he needed help _now_ , and... well, it was bad. He was over at Alya's with her and Nino, and some major boundaries were crossed. I'm not sure either of us can continue being friends with them after this.”

“That sounds pretty serious. Is _he_ okay?” Tom added a couple of pain au chocolat to the top of the pastry pile.

“I think he _will_ be,” she said after a moment of consideration.

“He's lucky to have a friend like you,” Tom said, hugging her shoulders. “We'll plan for him to stay for dinner just in case. See if he feels up to joining us for a few rounds of Ultimate Mecha Strike later.”

“I will, Papa.” Marinette kissed his cheek and headed back out into the bakery.

Sabine was back behind the register; Adrien was nowhere in sight. “I sent him upstairs,” Sabine said. “He looked like he could use a few minutes to compose himself. Let him know he's welcome to stay as long as he needs to, will you?”

“I will,” Marinette agreed. “If Alya or Nino show up, we're not here. Lila, too, although I don't think she'll have the nerve to show her face here.”

“Oh?” Sabine said, eyes narrowing dangerously. “Do you need us to intervene?”

“Not yet. Just... help me keep them away from him, please?”

“Of course, dear,” she said. “Let us know if that changes.”

“Thanks, Mama,” Marinette said, and headed up after Adrien.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realized after posting Chapter 1 that I'd forgotten to save a few minor changes that I'd made, so that's been updated today as well. Nothing changed affects the plot substantially.

Marinette found Adrien sitting on the couch in the living room, staring at his phone's blank screen. She set the plate of pastries down on the table and grabbed a couple bottles of water from the fridge before sitting next to him. The phone lit up with an incoming call from Alya; he ignored it.

“She's been blowing up my phone since we left,” he said quietly. “I should probably answer, but I just don't want to talk to her right now.”

“Then don't,” Marinette said simply. “Unlock it for me?”

He did and she took it, noting that Alya had been flooding his text inbox as well as calling. “Would you mind if I read the texts she's sent so you don't have to deal with the notifications?”

“That would be fantastic,” he said, popping an entire chouquette into his mouth. “Maybe I should download one of those number blocking apps so I can just filter everything to a different folder for a while.”

“If that's what you need to do to get some space, do it,” she said, skimming through the texts and raising her brow at some of the content.

“Huh,” Plagg said from her shoulder. “That explains a bit.”

“Do I even want to know?” Adrien said, breaking one of the danishes in half and handing a piece to Plagg. Marinette blinked and it vanished.

“Not now,” Plagg said. “It's not immediately actionable, so let's save you the unnecessary worry until you can do something about it.”

“Aww, you do care,” Adrien said, scratching Plagg under the chin. Plagg leaned into the touch and Marinette snorted as he lost his balance and went tumbling through the air.

“I only value you for your Camembert,” Plagg sniffed. Marinette pretended to not notice the way he slowly blinked at Adrien, or the way Adrien returned the gesture.

“Plagg, could you please get me the notepad and pen from the kitchen counter?” she asked. Plagg zipped off and returned with the items; Adrien gaped at her.

“What the hell?” he asked. “Every time I ask him to do something like that for me he makes a mess of my room.”

She blinked and looked up at him. “Wait, you mean _Plagg_ is your so-called poltergeist?”

“Yep,” Plagg said far too proudly.

“He's actually in every single one of the 'poltergeist' pictures I've posted,” Adrien said, picking up the second half of the danish. Plagg descended on it gleefully. “Not that anyone would know without having been there. Kwamis don't show up on recordings unless they want to.”

“I thought they didn't show up at all,” Marinette said. She belatedly realized that she probably shouldn't know that as Multimouse. “Um, I mean, Chloé transformed for the first time directly on camera and her kwami definitely wasn't caught on film.”

“It's actually all a matter of their will,” he said excitedly. “Chloé actually has quite a few selfies of her and Pollen that she's taken over the years.”

“Does she?” Ladybug was _definitely_ going to have to have a talk with her about that. Although... none of those selfies had seen the light of day, as far as she knew.

“Yeah. I'm pretty sure Pollen has told her to keep it under wraps. The only reason I've seen them is because I was there the first time she transformed and saw Pollen. She hasn't even shared them with any of the other heroes as far as I know.”

“Huh,” she said. “So the kwami has to be okay with having their picture taken for it to work?”

“Exactly,” he beamed. “Will is actually one of the more important elements of magic when it comes down to it. The suits themselves are formed from the ideas and desires of the wielder, so that influences the way they appear.”

“So you wanted that bell?” Marinette giggled.

“I told him it was ridiculous,” Plagg said.

“You mean adorable,” Marinette corrected him absently, scribbling a few more notes. She glanced up as Adrien leaned over to grab a macaron; his neck and the tip of his ear were flushed. When he leaned back, she could see the same color spreading across his cheeks. _Huh._

She glanced down at the notes she'd taken and sighed. There was a lot to unpack there, and the messages definitely didn't paint a pretty picture. Alya seemed to be under the impression that Adrien and Lila were dating and had been for quite some time, but were keeping things under wraps because Gabriel Agreste didn't approve of his son dating. Plagg settled on her shoulder and quietly confirmed that Alya had never questioned Adrien about the supposed relationship.

The last half of the messages were Alya alternating between trying to justify what had happened (she and Lila were just trying to make one of his supposed fantasies come true, which was really ridiculous because anyone with eyes could _see_ how uncomfortable she made him when she invaded his personal space) and insisting that Adrien needed to either answer his phone or respond to her texts so they could straighten out the misunderstandings. There was one message, buried in the flood of them, that left her simultaneously relieved and nauseated: _Lila didn't even touch you. Stop being overdramatic and let's talk this out like the adults we're supposed to be._

There was a single message from Nino: _Dude, I'm sorry. I should have stopped everything the second you used the safeword. I completely betrayed your trust in me today and there's nothing that I can do to make it up to you. I can promise it won't happen going forward, but I know that doesn't mean a lot right now. Take all the space and time you need. I'll be here if and when you decide to reach out to me._

She showed that one to Adrien with Plagg's approval. “Can you let him know that I appreciate the gesture and I'll be in touch when I'm ready?” he asked, slumping against the back of the couch.

She sent the message from her own phone, with a small addition of her own: _Can you tell your girl to stop blowing up his phone?_

Her eyebrows shot up at his response: _Not my girl anymore, but I passed on the message. Sorry she's harassing him on top of everything else._

“That could be promising,” Plagg muttered into her ear, “but it's probably still too early to tell.”

She found an app that would shunt messages from specific numbers into folders that weren't visible from the normal messaging app _and_ that would allow a passcode to be placed on the folder. Adrien approved it, and had her set up the passcode for him so he wouldn't have the option of reading them. She added Lila's number to the filter for good measure—they hadn't heard a peep from her, but better to not tempt fate—but left Nino's alone for the time being.

The stream of notifications stopped. Adrien sighed in relief. “What now?”

“Now? I kick your ass in Ultimate Mecha Strike!” Marinette jumped to her feet dramatically, punched the air, and tried to strike a pose with one foot raised onto the coffee table. Predictably, her foot flew out from underneath her and she flew backwards. She winced, waiting for the impact, but it never came.

Adrien chuckled and set her back on her feet. “Careful there.”

Was it her imagination or was that light pink dusting his cheeks again? She tossed him a controller and started up a match. His heart definitely wasn't in it; his poor bot didn't stand a chance against hers.

“I know I threatened to kick your ass, but it's no fun if you're not putting up a fight,” she declared after trouncing him in a third round.

“Sorry,” he said. “I'll do better next time.”

Marinette stared at him like he'd grown another head. “Adrien, if you'd rather not play right now, that's okay. We don't have to—”

“No, I want to play,” he said hastily. “I just... don't really feel like fighting against _you._ ”

“Oh!” She stared at him, wide-eyed. “That's an easy fix! Let's switch to co-op mode and see if we can't knock a few other teams down a few notches in the rankings.”

“We never did get to play together in that tournament back in collège,” he said as she set up the match. “You and Max really rocked it, though.”

“That was like four years ago now,” she laughed. “You still remember that?”

“Of course I do,” Adrien said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a familiar string of beads. “That was when you gave me my Marinette lucky charm. How could I forget?”

She laughed. “I'd say I can't believe you still have it, but...” she trailed off and pulled the one he'd given her out of her own pocket. “I still have the one you gave me, too.”

He beamed at her. “Well, with these on our side, how can we lose?”

They were so engrossed in the match they were playing that they didn't hear Marinette's parents come into the apartment. Marinette whooped as she landed a finishing combo on the opposing team's last bot. “Booyah! Take that Marinette-style ass kicking, you overrated tin can!”

Adrien laughed and bumped his fist against hers. “That was awesome, Marinette.”

“Eh, it was okay,” Tom said behind them. “But you'll never stand a chance against me and Sabine!”

Marinette rolled her eyes at Adrien. “He really thinks his skills can stand up to ours in a match. It's adorable, isn't it?”

“Careful, sweetie,” Sabine admonished her. “Them's fightin' words.”

Tom crossed his arms and glared at them. “Sabine, go get our controllers. I think we need to teach these uppity young'uns a lesson.”

* * *

“Pound it!” Marinette and Adrien chorused as they won yet another round and shared a victory fist bump. Her parents' mission to teach the uppity young'uns a lesson had been an almost total failure, but neither Tom nor Sabine seemed particularly bothered by it. Marinette strongly suspected that it had just been an excuse for them to join in, but she certainly hadn't minded—nor had Adrien, if the way he was grinning was any indication.

There was a knock at the door and Sabine set her controller down on the coffee table. “Ah, that should be dinner. Perfect timing,” she said.

“Will you be staying to eat with us?” Tom asked Adrien as she got up to answer the door.

“I wouldn't want to impose,” Adrien said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Tom slung an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. “You're never an imposition, son.”

“Please stay,” Marinette said, eyeing the number of bags Sabine was holding. “They ordered too much again and I really don't want to be eating leftovers for the entire rest of the week.”

Adrien blinked, and now that she knew what she was looking for she could read the dawning realization of _wait, that's a thing people do?_ flit across his face. “If you're sure—”

“We're positive, dear. Why don't you go ahead and get washed up while we get everything set up?”

He looked like he wanted to protest, but Marinette caught his elbow. “Go ahead. We've got everything here.”

Sabine pensively watched him as he headed down the hallway. “He seems to be doing a bit better than he was earlier.”

“I think he is,” Marinette said, taking one of the bags of food from her while Tom moved to get plates and utensils. By the time Adrien returned they had four places set at the counter and the takeout containers open between them. Marinette ducked out to wash her own hands and smuggle a few macarons to Tikki as Tom was telling Adrien to help himself to whatever he wanted.

“How are _you_ doing, Marinette?” Tikki asked softly when they were safely up in her room, taking one of the offered confections.

“Honestly? I don't know,” Marinette said. “Things have been crazy this afternoon, and I've been so focused on Adrien that I haven't even begun unpacking what any of this means to me.”

“Don't be afraid to lean on him.” Plagg floated up beside Tikki, regarding her with serious green eyes. She opened her mouth to protest—Adrien had more than enough on his plate without adding her worries to his own—but Plagg cut her off. “Seriously. You're a team. He needs to feel useful to you more than he needs to be handled with kid gloves. Besides,” he said, turning to face Tikki and shooting a sly glance over his shoulder at Marinette, “he's the sort who's going to blame himself for what happened between you and them, never mind that things have been deteriorating between you four for a while now. Or that technically _I_ was the one to bring you into things today.”

That... sounded exactly like Chat Noir, actually. She sighed and buried her face in the towel she was drying her hands with. “This is such a mess.”

“Human mating rituals usually are,” Plagg grumbled. Tikki pointedly elbowed him in the side.

“It might be a mess, but it's not _your_ mess to worry about, Marinette.”

“She's right,” Plagg said. “My kid got himself into this. Let him worry about the fallout.”

“Is that really okay?” Marinette asked, hanging the towel up again.

“More than okay,” Plagg said. “You helped him through the immediate problem, but he should be at a point where he can handle pretty much everything on his own. Step back and let him do it unless he asks directly for help.”

“Huh,” she said, reaching up to scratch him under his chin. “That's actually really helpful. And here I thought you weren't big on giving advice from what Chat's said about you.”

“Different wielders require different approaches,” he said with a shrug. “Anyway, Tikki and I have things to discuss. You should probably get going before you're missed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Plagg-as-poltergeist thing is based directly on [Adrien's Instagram post.](https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Sdl4tFfBP/)


	3. Chapter 3

Tikki waited for the door to close behind Marinette before she whirled on Plagg. “The Guardian isn't going to like this,” she said worriedly.

“The Guardian doesn't have to like it,” Plagg said. “I did what was necessary to protect my kid in the moment. He can deal with it.”

Tikki sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I know, but it wasn't necessary to reveal yourself to my wielder like that. She would have figured things out on her own without your direct involvement.”

“She would have. Your little bug is clever,” Plagg said, drifting down to sit next to Marinette's keyboard. “This goes beyond the immediate situation, though.”

“Oh?” Tikki joined him, holding her last macaron. She split it, offering half to Plagg, and he took it without complaint.

“There's treachery afoot,” Plagg said, tracing one of the macaron's spots with a paw. “My wielder's father is supposed to be out of the country for work this week.”

“Oh, he's attending the New York Fashion Week, isn't he?”

Plagg nodded. “At least, he _should_ be. His assistant drove him to the airport yesterday morning.” Tikki waited as Plagg nibbled his piece of macaron. “But I don't think she actually did. We saw him in the back of the car, but when she was pulling away I saw him flicker.”

“Flicker?” Tikki asked.

“Yeah,” Plagg said. “It was like one of Trixx's illusions that didn't quite line up with what it was supposed to be concealing. And maybe that wouldn't mean anything by itself, but my kid went down to the kitchen to grab a snack last night and his old man's scent was everywhere down there.”

“It was fresh?” Tikki asked.

“Yeah, but it's more the fact that his scent was there at all. He _never_ goes into the kitchen. That's what the staff are for. Preparing his own food is below Gabriel Agreste,” Plagg sneered.

“That _is_ odd,” Tikki murmured, biting into her macaron. “And you don't think it's just a matter of him not wanting to attend this event?”

“Why bother with all the deception?” Plagg asked. “He sent representatives to most of the fall shows in his place. The only one he actually attended was right here in Paris. It's not like he can't do the same this time around, so why go through so much trouble to make it seem like he's out of the country when he's not?”

“It's not like he's Hawk Moth,” Tikki said thoughtfully, finishing her half of the confection. “We ruled that out when he was akumatized and became the Collector.”

“Did we?” Plagg asked. “That was well before Mayura showed up on Heroes' Day. Who's to say that she wasn't helping him before then?” He nodded as Tikki paled, looking stricken. “And it was _awfully_ convenient that the Collector showed up right after the lying bitch stole that book from my wielder.”

She swore vividly in a language they had neither heard nor spoken for centuries. “This is serious, Plagg!” she hissed.

“Tell me about it, Sugarcube,” he said, ears flat against his head. “If this is actually what it seems to be, my kid's going to need all the support he can get. Half his closest friends just betrayed his trust; the other half happen to be your bug, and we're fortunate that she'll support him unquestioningly both in and out of the mask. He's not really close to any of his other classmates. It's been years since he trusted his father or the assistant with anything but the most superficial concerns.”

“I think we can count my wielder's parents among his support circle,” Tikki said thoughtfully.

“That seems like a safe bet. They've shown him more parental care tonight than his own father has shown him in the last two years,” Plagg said.

Tikki nodded. “And Tom has experience with parental issues, too. He was estranged from his own father for about twenty years after marrying Sabine.”

“Can't hurt having that in the mix,” Plagg said. “I think he's ultimately headed that way with his father regardless of how the potential supervillain thing pans out. The old man's worked overtime to keep him under his control this long. Ideally I'd get him out of there for good, but he's not quite ready for that yet.”

“This really throws a wrench in things,” Tikki said. “I was going to suggest that my wielder reveal herself to him, but that doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore.”

“It doesn't,” Plagg agreed, finishing the macaron. “The less my kid knows about your bug, the better, at least while he's under that roof. We'll need to figure out a way to bring Fu into the loop, too.”

“That's easy!” Tikki beamed at him. “We'll be meeting with him on Monday to get more potions for transformations. I can talk to Wayzz while Fu and my bug are working.”

“Good,” Plagg said. “I'll leave that to you, then.”

He cocked his head at the sounds from downstairs. “Sounds like they're finishing dinner. I'd better get back to him before he starts wondering where I disappeared to.”

Tikki tugged him into a hug before he could phase through the desk they were sitting on. “Be careful, Stinky Sock.”

She giggled as he rolled his eyes at her but returned her hug. He phased down through the floor and into the kitchen cabinets, then up into Adrien's overshirt.

“You're more than welcome to crash here if you're not ready to go home yet,” Tom was saying. “Sabine and I have an early morning tomorrow, so we'll be heading to bed soon, but Marinette can help you get set up in the guest bedroom if you'd like.”

“That—” Adrien paused as Plagg tapped his chest. “—sounds great, Mr. Dupain. Thank you.”

Plagg curled up in Adrien's pocket as Adrien helped the Dupain-Chengs clean up. Tom and Sabine headed off to bed almost immediately afterwards, and Marinette turned to Adrien. “It's still fairly early. Want to watch a movie?”

“Sure,” Adrien said. Plagg flitted out of his pocket as she disappeared up the stairs to her room in search of blankets.

“I'm going to need some Camembert soon,” he said, “and it probably wouldn't hurt for you to grab a change of clothes if you're going to be crashing here tonight.”

“I know,” Adrien said. “I'll see about sneaking out after Marinette goes to sleep.”

“Kid,” Plagg said, staring flatly at Adrien. “ _She knows._ ” He watched with no shortage of amusement as the realization dawned on his wielder.

“Oh,” he breathed. “Plagg, she knows.” Plagg valiantly held his straight face as the dopey smile spread, then suddenly fell as Adrien paled.

“Oh my god, Plagg,” he said. “She knows. Ladybug is going to kill me.”

“What.”

“Marinette knows. Plagg, she's not supposed to know. I'm so dead when Ladybug finds out.”

“Kid,” Plagg sighed. “Trust me on this. She's not going to kill you.”

“She totally is, Plagg,” Adrien groaned, running his hands through his hair.

“She really isn't,” Plagg said. “And if she wants to try, she's going to have to go through me.”

“Who's going to have to go through you?” Marinette asked, coming back into the living room with an armful of fluffy blankets.

“Ladybug,” Plagg said nonchalantly, settling atop Adrien's head. “My kid thinks she's going to kill him because I blew his secret identity.”

“It really was out of your control, Adrien. I think she'll understand that.” She tossed the blankets onto the couch and pulled him into a hug.

“Yeah, but I shouldn't have gotten myself into that situation in the first place,” he muttered against her shoulder.

“Stop that,” she said, pulling back and grabbing his chin in her hands. “Plagg is the one who approached me for help. Ladybug can't fault you for something he chose to do without your knowledge.

“And if she _does,_ ” she continued, staring directly into his eyes, “I'll fight her over it.”

“I'd love to see that,” Plagg snickered.

Adrien winced. “Please don't. You both mean too much to me... I'd hate to see you fighting each other, especially over me.”

“Don't worry. I'm positive it won't come down to that,” she said, stretching up on her toes to press a quick kiss to his forehead. “Just let her know what happened so she can take whatever precautions she feels are necessary, okay?”

“I will,” he said, looking dazed as she turned to spread the blankets out on the couch. Plagg shook his head—the kid truly was hopeless—and drifted over to her.

“The kid and I are going to run back to his place and grab a few things. Mind if we use your balcony?”

Marinette blinked. “No, of course not! Just...” she trailed off awkwardly, clearly worried about Adrien seeing Tikki in her bedroom but unable to voice that concern in front of his kid.

“Don't snoop through all your personal stuff?” Plagg cackled, zipping for the stairs. “Just try to stop me! I'm a god and I'll snoop if I want to!”

He phased through the trapdoor and waited for Adrien to catch up. “You're so incorrigible,” Tikki whispered from somewhere by Marinette's desk.

“I'm so, so sorry about him,” he heard Adrien say, then the quick and quiet sounds of his footsteps on the stairs.

Plagg blinked innocently at him as he came through the trapdoor. “What?” he asked.

Adrien shook his head as he stepped into the room and carefully lowered the trapdoor. “You're incorrigible,” he grumbled.

“Now where have I heard that before?” Plagg said thoughtfully. “Oh, I know, it was—”

Adrien rolled his eyes fondly and punched the air with his right hand. “Plagg, transform me!”

*

“You look like you've got a lot on your mind, son,” Tom said as he shuffled into the kitchen early the next morning. Adrien watched as he went through the motions of putting a pot of coffee on. “Anything you'd like to talk about?”

“Yeah, actually,” Adrien said. “I just... don't know where to start.”

Tom nodded, opening one of the cupboards. “That's understandable. Coffee?”

“Sure,” he said. Tom set two bowls on the counter next to the coffee pot and grabbed a baguette and a cutting board. He sliced it and handed one of the pieces to Adrien, then filled the bowls.

“Shoot, we're out of milk,” he grumbled. “I've got rice milk or almond milk. Which would you prefer?”

“Whatever you're having is fine,” Adrien said. “I”m actually lactose intolerant anyway.”

“Oh, that's right,” Tom said, grabbing the almond milk and adding a liberal amount to each bowl. He set one in front of Adrien and took a seat on the opposite side of the counter. “I keep forgetting that with how often you come in for gougères.”

“What can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment,” Adrien chuckled humorlessly. “Sabine said yesterday that this is a judgment-free zone...”

“And that applies to everyone in this household,” Tom said, dipping his baguette in his coffee. “I do need to warn you that Sabine and I tend to talk about almost everything. If you'd rather this stays between just us it will, but a lot of the time she sees things that I don't in a situation and vice-versa.”

Adrien stared down at his own bowl of coffee. “I think... I think it'd be okay if she knew. It's not going to go any farther than that, right?”

“Absolutely not without your permission,” Tom said immediately.

Adrien nodded and dunked the end of his baguette into the bowl, swirling it absently. “I guess I probably need to explain the arrangement I had with Alya and Nino.”

Tom's eyebrows shot up. “The friends with benefits arrangement?”

Adrien started. “How—oh, Marinette probably told you, huh?”

“She told Sabine, who told me, so I might have some of the details wrong. My understanding is that Alya and Nino decided they wanted to try having an open relationship and propositioned both you and Marinette.”

“That's pretty much it,” Adrien agreed. “Although there have been other people recently.”

“Makes me glad Marinette declined to participate,” Tom grumbled under his breath.

“Tell me about it,” Adrien said. “I wish I'd had her foresight at the time.”

“Hindsight is 20/20,” Tom said. “Anyway, this involves that arrangement?”

“Yeah,” Adrien said. “It's been about six months, I think? And it's been okay for the most part.” He shoved the entire end of his softened baguette into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “A couple months ago Alya wanted to give bondage a shot. Nino was game, and after a bit they roped me into it, too.”

“Pun intended?”

“I wish,” Adrien snorted.

“Were you okay with that?” Tom asked.

Adrien nodded. “Yeah, it was fine. We set limits and safewords, everyone respected and used them... then yesterday happened.”

Tom nodded. “Marinette told me you texted her for help. What went wrong?”

“What _didn't_?” Adrien asked, running his hands through his already-mussed hair. “We went over to Alya's place after school, and everything seemed completely normal. Alya suggested tying me up, I agreed, and then Lila walked into the room wearing basically nothing.”

“Lila _Rossi_?” Tom asked incredulously. He growled when Adrien nodded. “I've heard things about that girl.”

“Marinette's _really_ not a fan of her,” Adrien agreed. “Can't say I blame her.”

“So Lila showed up. Did you have any idea she was going to be there?”

“None whatsoever.” Adrien sipped his coffee. “I mean, they've been fooling around with her for a while, too, but neither of them even hinted that having her join us was a remote possibility.”

Tom winced. “They at least stopped everything when you made it clear you weren't comfortable with what was going on, right?”

“Nope. Nino _would_ have, if Alya hadn't stopped him. And it's not like anything actually happened beyond that,” he continued hurriedly. “I mean, it _would_ have, probably, but Marinette pretty much slammed into the room like an avenging angel and put an end to things.”

“That's my girl,” Tom said proudly.

“She's pretty incredible,” Adrien agreed. “So nothing actually happened—Lila didn't even _touch_ me—but...” he trailed off.

“You still feel massively violated?” Tom guessed. He nodded. “That's a perfectly reasonable thing to feel, son. You were in a really vulnerable position and that was taken advantage of. If I were you, I probably wouldn't even want to look at any of them right now.”

“I don't,” Adrien said. “Alya started blowing up my phone pretty much right after we left. Marinette helped me get an app set up to filter stuff from her out of my inbox and my notifications so I at least don't have to look at it right now.”

“That seems like a good idea.” Tom nodded.

“Nino sent me an apology, too. Marinette showed me that one and I had her reply to him for me.”

“Can I see it?” Tom asked. Adrien unlocked his phone and opened the conversation before handing it to him. Tom nodded thoughtfully as he read. “This seems like a decent apology. He seems genuinely remorseful, he's accepting responsibility for his own actions, and he's both realized that you need space _and_ says he'll be respecting that for as long as you need him to.”

Adrien nodded. “Yeah. I know I should accept it and forgive him, but I just can't do it right now.”

“Then don't,” Tom said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Forgiveness should be for _your_ benefit, not someone else's. It's totally reasonable to feel angry and resentful about what happened between you. They don't get to dictate when you stop feeling that way, and even if you _do_ eventually forgive them that doesn't automatically mean there has to be a reconciliation between you.”

“That's kind of what Marinette said yesterday.”

“We've taught her well, apparently,” Tom said with a smile. “Anyway, if you want my unsolicited opinion on that, I'd sit on accepting that apology anyway. See if he can respect the boundaries you've set for the time being, and if he's willing to work things out on your time frame rather than his own there might be hope of moving forward down the road.”

“Yeah,” Adrien said. “I think it's possible in the future, at least with Nino. I don't know about Alya. She's been really aggressive about trying to force contact so far.”

“Can I see those messages, too?” Tom asked. Adrien held his phone down below the counter so Plagg could unlock the app without Tom seeing him, then handed it over again. Tom let out a low whistle. “Wow. You haven't read any of these yet, have you?”

“No. Marinette went through them for me yesterday afternoon, and she took a lot of notes, but I haven't felt up to looking.”

“Good. Keep avoiding them. There's nothing good in here.” Tom's brow furrowed as he continued to scroll down. “She's been at it all night, too. Good grief.”

Adrien sighed. “I'm not really looking forward to dealing with her at school on Monday.”

“You know, this may be worth taking to a lawyer,” Tom said. “At least get some advice on how to proceed if the harassment continues like this or escalates.”

“I really don't want to take it that far,” Adrien said.

“You might not have a choice in the matter,” Tom said. “Plus there's also Lila to consider. With all the lies she tells I wouldn't be surprised in the least to find out she was actively slandering you.”

“Shit, I didn't even consider that,” Adrien groaned. He shot Tom a sheepish look. “Sorry—”

“Why? Tom cut him off. “We're all adults here. Who cares if you swear a bit?”

“My father doesn't have any tolerance for it,” he said.

Tom snorted. “Your father doesn't have tolerance for much from what I've seen.”

“He really doesn't.”

“Shoot,” Tom said, glancing at the clock. “I didn't realize how late it's getting. I need to get downstairs. We have a couple of relative newbies we're still training. The experienced staff are usually able to handle things just fine, but I like to be down there to supervise anyway.”

Tom rinsed their bowls out and left them sitting in the sink. “You're welcome to come on down if you want,” he said. “I'm sure we can find some dough for you to punch or something.”

“Is that as therapeutic as Marinette says it is?”

“Every bit,” Tom said. “You in?”

Adrien grinned. “Sure, why not?”


End file.
